Fished a big lake one day and a friend fished an alternative side, we both had twenties and around eight doubles as well, couldn't use a brolly it was blowing that hard but the fish took all day long and fought like tigers......amazing.

In Paul Gustafson's book he claims that pike rarely feed in the rain. It is a decent book but I have to disagree with his thoughts. I have had good hauls in heavy drizzle, but a dry windy day creating some serious chop is my preference.

I can put up with most weather conditions for piking, I don't mind flat calms too much either, but incessant rain is a killer for me.

Does anyone else find the same or have you managed to catch in the nasty wet stuff

I have had some of my best pike when the weather was not at her best, I
remember fishing HORNSEA MERE back in 1978 the storm was dreadful, the rain horizontal in fact you had trouble keeping your feet at times but that day
I had three fish in the 20's and a few good doubles, a day I will never forget.

I think it depends on the method to an extent. The presence of livebaits and lures can be masked by heavy rain imho as I think the surface noise/vibration overloads their senses and makes noticing moving prey more difficult, compounded further by poor water visibility. Deadbaits still smell though so may be a better option in heavy rain?

Thinking about it, I can't ever remember catching a good pike in heavy rain, but then again I don't usually bother going if it's raining too much. Catch 22?

Give me a big wind any day.

Not convinced about high pressure being particularly poor tbh. I lure fish for pike all year and catch plenty in the summer months in generally high pressure. I know a lot of people don't like it for pike but it doesn't bother me unless it's married to a still, hot, sunny day... and even then you can catch pike, especially on lures where you can trigger a reaction strike. I'd expect it to be the same with livebaits during the summer but I'd never, ever use baits in summer.

You can catch pike from the lowest to the highest pressures, and everything in between, so it's only occasionally a total waste of time being out fishing... one thing is for sure, you can't catch them if you haven't got a bait in the water.